Briscoe Rides To Peak Pole

Ryan Briscoe, who won the oval race at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year, won the pole at Chicagoland Speedway on Friday. (Photo courtesy of the IZOD IndyCar Series)

RacinToday.com

Ryan Briscoe on Friday won the pole for this weekend’s Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil 300 IZOD IndyCar Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

The Team Penske driver’s speed was 216.346 mph.

“The car today was just spot on,” said Briscoe, who won from the pole at Texas Motor Speedway in early June. “I didn’t want to be overconfident, but I was thinking after that run, ‘Man, that has to be hard to beat.’ I knew we were fully trimmed out and the car felt really solid.

“It was a great qualifying run and I’m just really hoping that we can follow through tomorrow and have another good race. We’ve been strong here the last couple of years and I really enjoy racing around here. It’s always exciting. It’s a completely wide track that’s really smooth. It really promotes good racing so I always get excited to come back here.”

Second was Dario Franchitti, who is second in points behind Will Power entering the Saturday night race. The speed for the Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver was 215.593 mph.

“Qualifying is a like an engineering exercise,” said Franchitti, who won at Chicagoland in 2007. “It’s getting all of those pieces into place. Then, if you miss one of them, or in Ryan’s case if you get them all just right, then you see the result. We’d like to have that extra point (for the pole) but we’re starting up front and I think we have a pretty good car in race trim.

“One of the things we realize about these one-and-half mile races is really that anything can happen. It can just go completely bad at anytime. It would be nice to stay up front all night, but we’re prepared for almost anything.”

Power, a five-time winner this season, was third fastest in qualifying. Next fastest was the teammate of Power and Briscoe, Helio Castroneves.

—

Results of qualifying Friday for the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.52-mile Chicagoland Speedway, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, and speed: